December 2003 WRRC Bulletin 1

WATER RESOURCES

DEC. 2003

B U L L E T I NU n i v e r s i t y o f H a w a i i a t M a n o a

RESEARCH CENTER

In this issue:New Researcher Joins WRRC pg. 1 Membrane Performance Study pg. 4Dr. Ray Receives Fulbright pg. 2 Current Research pg. 5Peter Vitousek Visits WRRC pg. 2 Resistant Bacteria in Hawaii Water pg. 6Chinese Delegation Visits WRRC pg. 3 Pharmaceuticals in Water pg. 7Membrane Bioreactor Study pg. 3 Modeling Workshop Announcement pg. 8

WRRC welcomed T. Kaeo Duarte on board this spring. Dr. Duarte is a jointappointee with the Department of Botany at U.H. Manoa.

T. Kaeo DuarteAssistant Researcher, Water Resources Research CenterAssistant Professor, Botany Department

Education:- Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002- B.S.E., Civil & Geological Engineering, Princeton University, 1995

Fields of interest:• Water Resource Management/Optimization• Groundwater Dynamics• Ecohydrology• Traditional Hawaiian Knowledge Systems• Water Economics

Recent Research Projects• Indigenous Science and Resource Use• Coastal Groundwater Discharge: Quantity and Quality Issues• Kohala Watershed Project• Density-Dependent Flow in Layered, High Hydraulic Conductivity Aquifers• Water Resource Economics and Valuation• Optimal Management Strategies for Coastal Pumping Wells in Hawai’i• Hydrologic-Economic Modeling of Water Resource Use• He‘eia Pond Project

Hui KonohikiAn endeavor at the University of Hawaii to bridge the gap between native Hawaiian

and mainstream scientific knowledge systems.

For more information about Dr. Duarte’s research activities please visit the followingwebpage:

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/duarte/default.htm

WRRC Welcomes Kaeo Duarte to Research Team

Dr. Duarte at work

2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 283 - Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 U.S.A. - 808-956-7847 - Fax 808-956-5044 - Email wrrc@hawaii.edu - http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu

2 WRRC Bulletin December 2003

WRRC researcher Chittaranjan Ray hasreceived a Fulbright Senior ResearchFellowship from the Council of InternationalEducation’s Middle East, North Africa, andSouth Asia regional program to study thepotential of riverbank filtration (RBF) to producedrinking water for selected cities on the GangesPlains of Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

Dr. Ray will visit thecities of Kathmandu, Nepal,Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad,Varanasi, and Patna in India,and Dacca in Bangladesh toexamine their methods ofdrinking water production,geologic and hydrologicpotential for RBF adoptionduring plant expansion, andfor potential to switch fromsurface water to bank filtrate.

RBF is a process in which horizontal andvertical wells placed close to rivers use thesurrounding soil and sand to filter outcontaminants in the river water. This techniqueis presently being used in Europe along theRhine, Seine, Elbe, and Danube Rivers. Anumber of cities in the United States are also

Chittaranjan Ray Receives Fulbright Award to StudyRiverbank Filtration in South Asia

A delegation of visitors from the PRC including the Vice-Minister of Water Resources - Mr. Zhai Haohui visited WRRC onAugust 26, 2003. The delegation was touring a number of citiesaround the United States with the goal of learning about differentapproaches to water problems. They also hoped to establish new,and strengthen existing cooperative agreements with U.S.government agencies, especially the Federal Department ofAgriculture. Vice-Minister Zhai spoke briefly about problemsfacing water managers at the national level in China and some ofthe projects that they are implementing to meet these challenges.WRRC faculty talked about the Center’s research activities.

One of WRRC’s missions is to foster cooperation with agencies and research institutes in the AsiaPacific region. We have hosted many similar visits from the area. On a recent sabbatical WRRCresearcher Dr. Clark Liu visited Sichuan University’s State Key Hydraulic Laboratory of High Speed Flow.WRRC has entered into an agreement with this laboratory to collaborate on future joint research projects,especially in the fields of environmental fluid mechanics and water quality modeling. Dr Liu has frequentcontacts with many colleagues in mainland China and Taiwan and has taken a lead role in establishingcooperative agreements with partner institutes there.

the delegation in front of Holmes Hall

Chinese Delegation Visits WRRC

adopting the process since the EnvironmentalProtection Agency is planning to give credit forpathogen filtration in the treatment plant for watersystems that use RBF at the front end.

Dr. Ray is one of a handful of engineeringprofessors to receive the Fulbright award this year.He plans to work with a student from the University ofTexas at Austin who received a Fulbright Award to

study microbial pollution load in theGanges at Varanasi during thecoming years. In addition, Dr. Rayplans to organize a workshop withassistance from the U.S.Educational Foundation on thebenefits of RBF, to be held inRoorkee, India.

Dr. Ray has published severalpeer-reviewed articles on the topic,and has completed editing twovolumes—”Riverbank Filtration:

Improving Source Water Quality” and “RiverbankFiltration: Understanding ContaminantBiogeochemistry and Pathogen Removal,” bothpublished by Kluwer Academic Publishers ofDordrecht, The Netherlands. The first volume is alsojointly published by the National Water ResearchInstitute located at Fountain Valley, California.

Dr. Ray

December 2003 WRRC Bulletin 3

Dr. Peter Vitousek, well-known professor of Biology and Ecology atStanford University visited WRRC on Sept. 25, 2003 and presented a seminarentitled “The Hawaiian Islands as Microcosm and Model”. This well-attendedseminar focused on the sources of nutrients that maintain forest productivity, overmillions of years of soil and ecosystem development, and the location ofprecontact intensive dryland agricultural system along gradients in rainfall on theBig Island. Dr. Vitousek is originally from Hawaii. If you would like to learn moreabout him and his work visit http://www.stanford.edu/group/Vitousek/.

Additional information on WRRC’s regular Thursday seminars can be foundat http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/seminars.html

Peter Vitousek Visits WRRC

Dr. Vitousek

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are an alternative to traditional secondary and tertiary wastewatertreatment processes for water recycling. These systems have a much smaller footprint, use microfiltrationor ultrafiltration membranes to provide a physical barrier for pathogens, and can provide very high qualityrecycled water for unrestricted non-potable use. Applications include decentralized water recycling andnutrient removal for discharge to sensitive waters.

Project DescriptionTo better understand the effectiveness of MBR technology, the University of Hawaii has undertaken an

MBR pilot study with sponsorship from the City and County of Honolulu, Department of EnvironmentalServices and the Board of Water Supply. This study is comparing the four leading manufacturers’equipment side-by-side. During this study, data will be collected to accomplish the following objectives:

Become familiar with MBR equipment from the leading manufacturers.Identify design and operating criteria for full-scale systems.Facilitate State Department of Health approval for MBR systems.Evaluate MBR performance in removing emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals andendocrine disrupting compounds).Promote water recycling as a valuable and viable water resource alternative.

Membrane Bioreactor Pilot Study - Roger Babcock

Project Timeline1) Start-up: Enviroquip-April 9, Ionics-June 25, Zenon-August 30, US Filter-October 152) Phase I: Raw wastewater; September 2003 - December 20033) Phase II: Primary wastewater; December 2003 – March 20044) Phase III: High-strength decant stream; March 2004 – June 2004

For additional information contact: Roger Babcock, 808-956-7298, rbabcock@hawaii.edu

Ionics US Filter EnviroquipZenon

4 WRRC Bulletin December 2003

Under a grant from the Water ResourcesResearch Institute Program of the USGS Dr.Albert Kim of the U.H. Manoa Department ofCivil Engineering is working on “Prevention ofColloidal Fouling in Crossflow MembraneFiltration: Searching for Optimal OperaionConditions”.

Crossflow membrane filtration processesinvolving reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration(NF), ultrafiltration (UF), and microfiltration(MF) have steadily gained importance inenvironmental engineering separations overthe past decade. Numerous improvements in

the technology have spurred widespreadadaptation of this process in environmental,chemical, pharmaceutical, and biomedicalapplications. Microfiltration is used in a widevariety of industrial applications whereparticles of a size greater than 0.1 µm, haveto be retained from a liquid. Applicationsinclude the sterilization and clarification of allkinds of beverages and pharmaceuticals, andin particular pre-treatment for subsequentfiner membrane filtrations, especially in waterand wastewater treatment. Ultrafiltration andnanofiltration, in particular, are importantprocesses for the removal of solutes,macromolecules (such as natural organicmatter), pathogenic viruses, and smallcolloidal materials in water and wastewatertreatment. The production of potable waterfrom seawater or brackish water by reverseosmosis has become increasingly important,especially in Hawaii and other Pacific and

Asian island areas.There are, however, several aspects of this evolving

membrane technology that have not yet been addressedconclusively and still pose formidable obstacles towardits wide adoption. One important issue is membranefouling due to concentration polarization and cakeformation of particulate materials.

Concentration polarization is a phenomenonwherein there is a concentration of particles in a thinlayer adjacent to the membrane which has the effect ofreducing flow through the membrane. Cake formation isthe accumulation of particulate matter on the membranesurface. It also reduces the flow.

The objectives of Dr. Kim’s research are (1) todevelop a fundamental statistical mechanicalapproach to identify the transition point from aliquid-like to a solid-like structure of colloidaldispersions due to several physico-chemical andoperational conditions in membrane filtration, (2)to make a simulation-based empirical correlationthat can be used by engineers for determiningoptimum operation conditions in pilot and/or realmembrane systems, and (3) to decide the criticalpermeate flux under which only concentrationpolarization is a dominant cause of the flux declinebefore the cake layer forms. Therefore, theresearch will provide answers to the followingimportant questions: (i) how do the inter-particleinteractions and dispersion microstructure govern

the nature and extent of concentration polarization, thetransition to cake formation, and the resulting permeateflux decline behavior?, (ii) What is the particleconcentration at which a colloidal dispersion undergoesa transition from a liquid-like disordered state (pureconcentration polarization) to a solid-like state (cake/gellayer) during membrane filtration processes?, and (iii)How can the membrane fouling by the cake formation beprevented and/or reduced by changing physico-chemicaland operating conditions of the membrane filtration witha given particle suspension? Based on the results to beprovided, this research will enhance our understandingof fouling problem, and thus will help developingsolutions to prevent and treat membrane fouling.

Water Purification Membrane Performance Study

For more information on membraneseparations visit Dr. Kim’s website at

http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/CE/research/membrane_filtrations.html

small ultrafiltration unit

December 2003 WRRC Bulletin 5

Current Research ProjectsWater Research Institute Projects

Other Projects

Investigator Project Time Frame

Fujioka Confirming the Natural Presence of Fecal Indicator Bacteria in Environmental Soil & Water on Kauai & Hawaii (YR 1) 03/01/01 - 02/28/04

Kim Prevention of Colloidal Fouling in Crossflow Membrane Filtration: Searching for Optimal Operation Conditions 03/01/03 - 02/28/04

Liu Removal of Nitrogenous Aquaculture Wastes by a Wind-Powered Reverse Osmosis System 03/01/02 - 02/28/04

Ray An Accurate Evaluation of Water Balance to Predict Surface Runoff and Percolation 03/01/02 - 02/28/04

Ray An Evaluation of Factors Affecting the Transport of Pharmaceutical Compounds and Pathogens in Selected Hawaii Soils for Land Application of Wastewater 03/01/03 - 02/28/04

Roumasset A Win-Win Approach to Water Pricing and Watershed Conservation 03/01/02 - 02/28/04

Roumasset Efficient Water Allocation and Pricing with Win-Win Conservation Surcharges: The Central Oahu Corridor 03/01/03 - 02/28/04

Investigator Project Time Frame

Babcock Sequential Anaerobic-Aerobic Biodegradation of PCBs & PAHs in Phytoremediation Cutting Using Slurry Reactors & Composters 05/01/02 - 10/31/03

Babcock Granular Activated Carbon Regeneration Pilot Test 11/01/02 - 05/02/04

Babcock Honolulu Membrane Bioreactor Pilot Test 07/02/03 - 12/31/04

Babcock Evaluation of Potential Irrigation Impacts on Groundwater 04/30/03 - 04/29/04

Brock R Initial Assessment of Hawaii’s Estuaries and Coastal Waters (EMAP Program) 06/01/01 - 05/31/05

El-Kadi Statewide Assessments of Drinking Water Sources Under the Hawaii SWAP 06/25/01 - 02/28/04

El-Kadi Assessment and Protection Plan for the Nawiliwili Watershed 10/01/01 - 02/29/04

Fujioka Development & Implementation of a Water Monitoring Plan to Prepare for Criminal & Terroristic Contamination of a Drinking Water System 03/07/02 - 09/05/04

Fujioka Assessing the Microbial Quality of Potable Water on Kauai 9/1/03 - 12/31/04

Fujioka Assessing the Water Quality Characteristics of the Electrocel-Diatomic Water Treatment System 10/01/02 - 09/30/03

Moncur Cost of Secondary Treatment: Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, City and County of Honolulu 04/01/03 - 09/30/03

Moncur A Five-Year Biological and Sediment Monitoring Program 2002 - 2007 08/23/02 - 09/30/07

Moreland Sand Island WWTP Pilot Unit Testing Phase II 09/08/00 - 12/31/03

Moreland Optimize Aeration Secondary Clarifier & Disinfection Processes-Schofield Barracks WWT Plant 01/01/03 - 12/31/03

Rappa Statewide Watershed Project: Background Data for Watershed Restoration Plans 11/29/02 - 05/31/04

Ray Leaching of Selected Pesticides in Hawaii as Influenced by Soil Properties and Hydrologic Conditions 06/26/02 - 07/31/04

Ray A Reconnaissance Study of Local Hydrologic Conditions Affecting the Ground Water & Surface Water Systems at the MCBH Landfill 10/01/02 - 09/30/03

6 WRRC Bulletin December 2003

Ocean water quality in Hawaii recently made the papers in Daytona Beach, Florida. Florida sharesmany of the same recreational water quality concerns that affect Hawaii. The following is reprinted fromThe Daytona Beach News-Journal Thursday Nov. 6, 2003, pg. 10. The article refers to work Dr. RogerFujioka has been conducting looking at staphylococcus bacteria in Hawaii’s recreational waters.

By RAY WEISS - Staff Writer Datona Beach News-Journal.

Ocean researchers in Hawaii are finding the same bacteria that infected several Volusia Countyswimmers, surfers and fishermen along some of that state’s most crowded beaches. Roger Fujioka, apublic health microbiologist at the University of Hawaii, said methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus,better known as MRSA, has shown up in water samples taken at several popular beaches on the mainisland of Oahu.

He started his research almost a decade ago, intrigued by medical reports that indicated PacificIslanders were developing the staph infections at a higher rate than non-islanders. Fujioka supports theprevailing opinion by infectious disease experts that MRSA is a highly contagious bacteria that is foundeverywhere on land. But he said his research shows the antibiotic-resistant bacteria also can survive formany hours in warm seawater, with the highest colony counts appearing at busy beaches during the day.Bacteria counts are lower at sparsely populated beaches and drop at night when swimmers leave.

“In Hawaii, it’s accepted as a problem,” he said of staph infections, including MRSA, being transmittedthrough ocean water. “There’s a correlation between using marine waters and getting this infection.”

Fujioka theorizes that MRSA, which is carriedby about 1-in-3 people, washed off the skin ofbathers, surfers and paddlers — a popular sport inHawaii. The samples were taken in water up to 4feet deep, 10 to 20 yards offshore.

Health officials from Florida and VolusiaCounty are looking into recently reported cases ofthe bacterial infection that hospitalized severallocal offshore commercial fishermen and surfers.Those officials have said the bacterial infectionsmost likely were spread person-to-person on land.

Peter Thornton, environmental division administrator for the Volusia County Health Department, said it’snot startling that Fujioka found the bacteria in crowded sampling areas. “About one-third of people arewalking around with staph on them,” he said. “So it’s not surprising to find it in the water, because they’re inthe water.” But Thornton said more research is needed to back Fujioka’s opinion that people with cuts,scrapes or wounds could contract MRSA in the ocean. And that could be difficult.

Even though Fujioka has checked Hawaiian beaches for a decade, there is no universal test forsampling and measuring ocean water for MRSA. “No one’s looked for it in water,” Fujioka said. “So thereare no standards.” But Fujioka said he is working on creating what could be that standard.

Dr. Alan Tice, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Hawaii’s medical school in Honolulu,also is involved with the study. He says staph aureus has been reported in seawater elsewhere in theworld, including the Mediterranean and Dead seas. “Staph is used as a marker for pollution in the MiddleEast,” he said. He added the bacteria reportedly has been found in the lungs, eyes and livers of seals andsea lions along the central California coast, something he attributes to pollution. Tice said four beaches inHawaii are being monitored. MRSA comprises about 1 percent of the staph found in the water, or about thesame percentage of patients found carrying MRSA when cultured at a local clinic, he said.

Resistant Bacteria Shows Up in Hawaii

Scanning electron micrograph of Staphylococcus aureus

December 2003 WRRC Bulletin 7

Hanauma Bay, site of some of Dr. Fujioka’s research

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are emerging as a threat to drinking water suppliesaround the world. With the ever-increasing use of medications and cosmetics researchers are seeing moreof them turning up in drinking water. The list of compounds found in water supplies includes antibiotics,pain medication, tranquilizers, caffeine, cholesterol drugs, and hormones. These are extremely bioactivecompounds with potentially profound effects on humans and wildlife in extremely small amounts. Manysuch drugs are capable of disrupting the delicate balance of the endocrine system. Toxicologists believethat recent declines in reproductive success in a variety of species may be attributed to this pollution.

Pharmaceuticals make their way into the environment via several routes. Unused prescriptions aredisposed of in landfills or flushed down toilets. Antibiotics, hormones, and other medications used onlivestock (about 40% of the antibiotics made in the U.S. are fed to livestock to enhance their growth) aredeposited on the ground with the animal’s excreta from where they can wash into streams or leach into theground . Drugs and their metabolites are passed to the wastewater treatment plant in human excreta.

With diminishing water supplies and environmental concerns about disposal of wastewater morecommunities are turning to land application of treated sewage. This raises concerns about possibleleaching of pharmaceuticals into vulnerable aquifers, particularly here in Hawaii where we are sodependent on groundwater. Normal sewage treatment processes knock the concentrations of drugs downby several orders of magnitude, however small but biologically significant amounts pass through treatmentplants unchanged.

Dr. Christian G. Daughton, at the Environmental Sciences Division of EPA’s National ExposureResearch Laboratory in Las Vegas says that the amount of prescription medication, perfume, and otherchemicals from personal use that are getting into the environment is roughly equivalent to all the fertilizerand other farm chemicals used in agriculture. The difference is that far less is known about the cumulativeeffects of these products that are a part of everyday life.

Although the phenomenon of environmental contamination with these chemicals has been recognizedfor many years, it is only recently that scientists have started to be concerned about the potential effects onhumans and wildlife, and there has been a great increase in research in this area.

Dr. Roger Babcock at WRRC is studying the fate and transport of pharmaceuticals and endocrinedisruptors in soil following irrigation with recycled water. He is using a combination of fieldtest plots with lysimeters, laboratory soil columns, and numerical modeling. He is also lookingat removal of these compounds during different biological treatment processes includingmembrane bioreactors (see article page 3).

For that reason, Tice said people should notbe any more afraid of swimming in the oceanthan opening a door at home. “We are coveredwith billions of organisms. Staph is a normalhuman organism. To not go in the ocean justbecause there’s staph is ridiculous,” he said. “It’snot like it’s breeding out there. People shed it.”He said good hygiene, such as bathing afterswimming, is the key to avoiding potentiallydangerous bacterial infections.

MRSA usually affects people with weakenedimmune systems, including cigarette smokers andpatients in hospitals, nursing homes and othermedical facilities. But infections are increasing,especially in tight confines like locker rooms andoffshore fishing boats. Public health agenciesblame the overuse and misuse of antibiotics for the rise in MRSA. The skin disorder commonly starts withsmall pustules that can expand to the size of silver dollars within days. Left untreated, MRSA can result inmassive infection, amputation and even death.

Pharmaceuticals In Our Water Supplies

8 WRRC Bulletin December 2003

December 15-16, 2003, University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus, Honolulu, HawaiiInstructors

• Dr. Martinus Th. van Genuchten, Soil Physicist, U. S. Salinity Laboratory, USDA, ARS, Riverside, CA• Dr. Jirka Simunek, Research Hydrologist with the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences of the

University of CaliforniaOverviewNumerical modeling is an increasingly important tool for analyzing complex problems of water flow and

contaminant transport in the unsaturated zone. This workshop is designed to familiarize participants with the principlesand numerical analysis of variably-saturated flow and transport, and the application of state-of-the-art numerical codesto site-specific subsurface flow and transport problems.

Workshop DescriptionThe workshop begins with a detailed conceptual and mathematical description of water flow and solute transport

in the vadose zone, followed by an overview of finite element techniques for solving the governing flow and transportequations. Special attention is given to the highly nonlinear nature of the governing flow equation. Alternative methodsfor describing and modeling the hydraulic functions of unsaturated porous media are also described.

Computer sessions will allow participants to become familiar with the Windows-based RETC, STANMOD,HYDRUS-1D and HYDRUS-2D software. Emphasis will be on the preparation of input data for a variety ofapplications, including flow and transport in a vadose zone, variably-saturated flow through a dam, and two-dimensional leachate migration from a landfill through the unsaturated zone into groundwater. Calibration will bediscussed and demonstrated using both one and two-dimensional model inversions.

For more information visit our website at http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/

Workshop Announcement - Modeling of Water Flow and Solute Transport inthe Vadose Zone